Tom Tancredo

Thomas Gerard "Tom" Tancredo (20 December 1945-) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-CO 6) from 3 January 1999 to 3 January 2009, succeeding Daniel Schaefer and preceding Mike Coffman. He ran for President of the United States in 2008, but he lost early in the party primaries, and he also unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Colorado in 2010 as the US Constitution Party's candidate.

Biography
Thomas Gerard Tancredo was born in Denver, Colorado in 1945, and he was active with College Republicans, speaking in support of the Vietnam War during the 1960s; however, he claimed that he had depression in order to avoid the draft. He worked as a history teacher during the 1970s, and he was elected to two terms in the State House of Representatives in 1976. He worked in the Department of Education during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and he was elected to the US Congress in 1999, serving five terms. In 2008, he chose not to run for re-election, instead planning to run for President. His main campaign issues were illegal immigration and terrorism, but he dropped out in order to support Mitt Romney's unsuccessful campaign. In 2010, he changed party affiliation to the American Constitution Party, and he won 36.7% of the vote in his unsuccessful run for Governor of Colorado, winning far more votes than the less-successful Republican candidate. In 2014, he decided to return to the Republican Party and ran for governor once more, opposing John Hickenlooper's anti-death penalty and pro-gun control policies. He once more failed to get elected, and he left his party again in 2015; in 2018, he once more ran as a Republican gubernatorial candidate, but he suspended his campaign.